Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A hybrid organic-inorganic polymer resin enables the three-dimensional (3D) printing of nanoscale optical-grade glass at temperatures roughly half of what other approaches require, researchers report ("A sinter-free low-temperature route to 3D print nanoscale optical-grade glass"). According to the authors, the approach may help redefine the...
Layers of self-healing electronic skin realign autonomously when cut
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Human skin is amazing. It senses temperature, pressure, and texture. It’s able to stretch and spring back, time and again. And it provides a barrier between the body and bad things in the world—bacteria, viruses, toxins, ultraviolet radiation and more. Engineers are, accordingly, keen to...
Flat fullerene fragments attractive to electrons
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have gained new insights into the unique chemical properties of spherical molecules composed entirely of carbon atoms, called fullerenes. They did it by making flat fragments of the molecules, which surprisingly retained and even enhanced some key chemical properties....
The ‘breath’ between atoms – a new building block for quantum technology
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) University of Washington researchers have discovered they can detect atomic "breathing," or the mechanical vibration between two layers of atoms, by observing the type of light those atoms emitted when stimulated by a laser. The sound of this atomic "breath" could help researchers encode and...
Rapid nanoparticle test for sepsis
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) For Qun Ren, every minute counts. The Empa researcher and her team are currently developing a diagnostic procedure that can detect life-threatening blood poisoning caused by staphylococcus bacteria rapidly. This is because staphylococcal sepsis is fatal in up to 40 percent of the cases. An...
Producing large, clean 2D materials made easy: just KISS
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) Ever since the discovery of the two-dimensional form of graphite (called graphene) almost twenty years ago, interest in 2D materials with their special physical properties has skyrocketed. Famously, graphene was produced by exfoliating bulk graphite using sticky tape. Although it was good enough for a...
Researchers find a way to reduce the overheating of semiconductor devices
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The demand to shrink the size of semiconductors coupled with the problem of the heat generated at the hot spots of the devices not being effectively dispersed has negatively affected the reliability and durability of modern devices. Existing thermal management technologies have not been up...
Functional 2D-enabled microchips become reality
Jun 01, 2023 (Nanowerk News) The first demonstration of a functional microchip integrating atomically thin two-dimensional materials with exotic properties heralds a new era of microelectronics. The world’s first fully integrated and functional microchip based on exotic two-dimensional materials has been fabricated at KAUST. The breakthrough demonstrates the potential of...
A nanocrystal shines on and off indefinitely
May 31, 2023 (Nanowerk News) In 2021, lanthanide-doped nanoparticles made waves—or rather, an avalanche—when Changwan Lee, then a PhD student in Jim Schuck’s lab at Columbia Engineering, set off an extreme light-producing chain reaction from ultrasmall crystals developed at the Molecular Foundry at Berkeley Lab. Those same crystals are back...
Scientists report world’s first X-ray of a single atom
May 31, 2023 (Nanowerk News) A team of scientists from Ohio University, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Illinois-Chicago, and others, led by Ohio University Professor of Physics, and Argonne National Laboratory scientist, Saw Wai Hla, have taken the world’s first X-ray SIGNAL (or SIGNATURE) of just one atom. Since...